Weekly Talk #3 Whats makes a character annoying?/What makes an erotic story spicy ?~

[luciasilvereyes]

Hi everyone,
I hope you're doing well.I've received some interesting responses in last week's thread and unfortunately i wasn't in the mindset to answer them all but they were all great responses that brought up some very good points, many expressed how a good protagonist is only as good as their development over the story and the arcs. A good protagonist has flaws and strengths.And the second question is what makes a character death emotional and one very notable point was brought up and credits to them for their interesting response which is that emotional character death is one that feels unfair.I highly recommend checking out their full response in last week's thread it's very very interesting and very helpful to everyone and again I thank you all for contributing to these threads >^<.

This week I decided to come up with 2 new questions but i'd like to have the thread responders reply to each other w let's do a lil experiment and see how this runs~! So I'll start with an answer and i'll respond back to the next person who replied to the initial post.

1. What makes a character annoying for me is,a character that completely depends on another character to bail them out in situations where they themselves could be able to handle it. character becomes annoying or uninteresting when they lack a dynamic that makes them only one trait the entire duration of a story or a character that exists for a specific purpose that the reader can figure out immediately. It's hard to label whats annoying because the description of annoying is subjective, but if i find a character annoying my internal reaction is "jesus can this character just get lost already?" and that's maybe just me but if i react that way it's usually not a good sign for the story i'm reading.A character can start out annoying or not as appealing but if over time they show some form of dynamic change i'd consider giving them a chance and would feel a bit more interested but it really depends on the reader and i feel that,there has to be a range to every character.Even those who may seem as ...douchebags.

2.I'm a sucker for a good erotica that draws sexual tension.Personal preference some people might feel that drawing it out too long is just pointless since we know there's something going on but it gets a bit too predicatable if we know that if they really like each other and if the author just cuts to them banging constaqntly it's like.....okay?The tension and feel is lost and i'm just like "oh hey ...porn - that's nice".Now i just speak from a reader that reads mainly gay porn but it applies to all forms of relationships,though a little characterization added into the characters in how they; respond to such tension flavors it a bit for me.

[snailienz]

As for question 1, an annoying character to me is more often...not a character at all. I get annoyes by writing where a character is like a narrorator, and not in a cool way. One where the character seems to just be the creator telling us what we need to know. I find that sort of thing very boring when it isnt done in the right context. it usually is accompanied by all of the characters kind of feeling that way.

As for the nsfw side. I'd say EMOTION is why hypes up a sex scene for me. A scene can be super hot, but the feeling behind that is what turns the dial from "ooh nice" to "hoo we mama. is it hot in here?" even if the emotion is just how much they enjoy what is happening.

[AVXP]

Annoying: A character that would NEVER be in the position that they are placed in. It's like certain things are happening BECAUSE the writer/creator picked this character. The worst student in the school gets picked......the person that is struggling is chosen over that PERFECT - way better qualified main antagonist.

[joannekwan]

To me the most annoying characters, if specifically looking at protagonists, are ones who are simply dragged along for the story and only progress the plot at the behest of others. They never make their own decisions.
As for other types of characters, the most annoying ones are the ones that butt in, add nothing to the story, and they get too much screentime. And often they're just there for 'comedic relief'.

As for what's spicy, the characters have to have a need for each other. And the sex can't be too frequent; give the reader time to breathe and let the characters do other things! Even if it's full on erotica, scenes need to be built up before sexy times begin. Otherwise it can become monotonous and not have as big of an impact, like at that point you're just reading porn clips one after the other without much context.

[frostdrive]

ANNOYING; I think what makes a character annoying is when they're SOOO moralic that they always do the right thing, even if it has 0% chance of working and it's just illogical.

NSFW: I think just creativity is what makes it. If I can predict everything, then its boring.

[LadyN]

Annoying characters are made when an author tries to make them flawed but not terrible. The only time annoying characters are acceptable are if the MC don’t like them. What I absolutely despise is when the love interest is obnoxious and annoying at the same time, that’s when it’s unacceptable!

And no comment on the other one.

[Iris-Grimoire]

Annoying characters are either when their haha shenanigans actively damage the story and they never see any repercussion to it, when they're just there for weak "comic relief" to the point of grinding the story to a halt, or both. I've seen a lot of annoying thrown around for characters that are just stupid or hot blooded, but it's not mutually exclusive.

Spicy needs the foreplay, of course. Making you care about the characters even if you need to be brief about it, going into their feelings, not describing/drawing every action but learning to pick and choose what really puts your mind into what's going on. It's a little abstract when you think about it, but that's the first part of imagination, it appeals to making someone fill in the blanks and blush over it.

[ratscout]

1. Hmmm... I can't think of any particular type of character that annoys me, necessarily. I guess I 'm really not fond of ones where their motivation/character arc is like, really unclear and they're just along for the ride because that's how the author wanted it? XD I dunno... The quality of writing just always makes the difference when it comes to characters. I was originally going to say that I'm not particularly fond of overpowered characters who can't control their powers just because it's been done to death, but if the writing is good, I really don't mind it too much. shrug.

2. I kind of like it more when sex scenes aren't explicitly written or shown but are assumed. Like... I like it when people write/show the lead up and the morning after more for some reason? The emotion also has to be there for me, too, and the couple has to be interesting. It's extremely romantic in my opinion when one character is ugly in a relationship, for example, because that means that the other character fell in love with them based purely on their personality which is just... Adorable. There's actually a good example of what I personally find sexy in Gone With the Wind. They show the lead-up of what happened when Rhett drags her upstairs and then the next morning she's just like...
   Over the moon LOL. He rocked her world man.